Rapture

Chapter 5: Living in a world of May 22

On May 21, 2011, at 6 PM local time, I was in the check out line at Carrefour with my teammates buying stuff we are giving to the orphanage we volunteered at over the weekend (pictures on Monday). At that exact moment, when all people were going about their business, buying groceries, office supplies, and random stuff, they all came to a stop. The store got quiet, and everyone dropped what he or she was doing. They stood up straight, looked up and…

In Thailand, apparently they play the national anthem at 6 PM. So people stopped to pay their respects to King and Country (Thailand has a King, and unlike many European nations, they like their King). Afterwards, everyone resumed his or her activities. That was it. The world did not end, there was no earthquake, and there was no rapture, the world kept on spinning.

I feel this is important to talk about. Not only because it is relevant, but also because I am on a missions trip to Thailand. What does it mean to live in the world of May 22? For many of us, May 21 was normal, despite some snickering about the people believing it was the end. But for some, they staked everything on it. They quit jobs, cancelled appointments, and said goodbye to their loved ones. They did not even consider the possibility of being wrong. And yet nothing happened. For many of us, May 22 will be a normal day, but for some it is a day of disappointment. Sure some will believe the inevitable excuse of “my calculations were off” from the guy who predicted it, but others will be disillusioned, lost, and without a job to go back to. So what does it mean to live in a world of May 22?

Many of the world’s religions have some discourse on eschatology (the fancy greek word for the study of the end of time). Some are more vivid than others. Christianity has a very vivid description in the Book of Revelation. For two thousand years, people have tried to unlike the meaning of not only this book, but also the entire Bible in order to determine when the end of time was going to occur. Obviously, they were all wrong. We are still here more or less. But despite the constant failures at predicting the event, people still cling to the apocalypse for one reason or another. The biggest of these is hope.

The Book of Revelation is supposedly authored by a figure known as John of Patmos. He wrote during a time of persecution for Christians in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). For many, there was a feeling of hopelessness, of despair, and of great fear. In this atmosphere, John wrote about the end of this world and the creation of another. The new world would be one where God would reside on Earth with man, that there would be justice, harmony, and peace. The world would not only be restored, but it would be remade. It speaks to one of the most basic aspects of our humanity, the hope for a better world.

Flash forward to today. There is poverty, disease, war, and injustice in our world, and yet instead of it getting better, it seemingly is getting worse. Turn on the television, Google news, or listen to the radio and it seems that we are on a one-way trip to disaster. And because the stakes seem so big, people can begin to believe that there is no hope, no way out, except for God to set things right. There is nothing wrong with that, to hope for a better world. What is sad is when this sentiment that people have gets exploited for fame, power, and money. Even though nothing happened, how much airtime and publicity did Harold Camping (the Oakland, CA pastor that initially predicted this) receive? A whole lot. And inevitably, he will come out with a new prediction like he did in 1994 pointing to something in the future. So we will be here again in a few years.

And though the world did not end on May 21, we should remember that we have been given May 22 as a gift, just like every other day.

I spent my May 21 at an orphanage in Thailand. I have to admit, I do not like kids that much, particularly in high doses. But even my old Grinchy self couldn’t help but have fun with the rascals. For one reason or another these kids were here. And across the world, there are many other orphanages with kids, and some of those are not lucky enough to be in an area that gets a great deal of foot traffic from the outside world. It would be naïve of me to suggest that I alone, or my team alone, can save the world. But after spending weeks reading reports, looking at photos, and watching movies about the atrocities that happen in Burma, particularly to children, seeing these kids and the life in their eyes gives me hope for the future.

We can and we must build a better world for ourselves and our children. All of the problems of our world are human made, and, here is the beauty of that reality, they can be solved by humanity. The problems may seem big and daunting, but they are not insurmountable. It requires a leap of faith, to live in hope and not in fear.

And so, May 22 can be a normal day like any other day, or it can be a day where we begin the task of making a new and gentler world.

Supplemental

Chapter 3: City of Temples and Rain

I have been in Thailand for about a week, and so far I think I have a pretty good layout of the city at this point. Chiang Mai is the cultural heart of Thailand, and as such it is packed to the gills with temples and traditional structures. Chiang Mai has over 300 temples within it. The city is beautiful, hectic, and crazy. I am enjoying it nonetheless. The food is cheap and good, whether it is from a street vendor selling Pad Thai or a restaurant that has some new curry, I truly do enjoy it. And though it is hot, it is also pleasant when indoors, or up on a mountain.

The layout of Chiang Mai is pretty simple. The city itself is fairly small and easy to get around. There is the old city, which is within the old city walls that were built in the 1200’s. It is about a square km in area and this is where I am staying. There are a number of temples within the area, but I have yet to visit them. The hotel we are staying in is the Mountain View Guest House. It is a nice enough place, Pi Dang, the owner is incredibly nice and helpful. She can easily point us in the direction of something fun, and get us a Songthaw (a pickup truck converted into a taxi), and for this I am thankful. Every Sunday night, a section of the city gets converted into a walking street market. This market contains pieces of art, faux designer goods, and food. It is a lot of fun to be there, but it is also crowded and packed to the gills.

Most of the city is outside the walls. Notable places are the Kat Swan Kae mall, the Night Bazaar, and even more temples. The Kat Swan Kae is a mall near the wall and it is really unusual mall. On the outside, it looks hideous; it is a large ugly brick structure that does not even look like a mall. Walk inside though, and it is a large modern mall. You are greeted with a wave of A/C, which is needed when you walk to it from the hot outside air, and it runs 5-6 (maybe 7) floors. I really don’t know. The mall has no central focal point or corridor, but instead is grouped into a series of clusters in the building. There are empty and unused sections of the mall, particularly on the floor with the bowling alley and cinema. But it is still a good mall, and the grocery store in the basement has a pretty decent food court. I really don’t shop here since I am looking to the various markets for cheapo goods. The Night Bazaar is a nightly market in the Farung district of the city (or the foreign district). It sells many of the same goods as the walking street market on Sunday, so it is kinda the same old thing. However, I do not like having to pay 4x the standard rate for the Songthaws in the area (it costs 20 Baht to go there, and 40-50 to leave).

Now you may wonder why I titled this as the City of Temples and Rain, well along with 300 temples, there is also rain, and I mean a lot of rain. It has rained every day that we’ve been here. And not an “oh its misting a little bit,” I mean “my Lord, I’m drowning in rain.” It usually starts at 4 PM daily, but there have been some exceptions to that rule, like when it is nighttime and you want to go home. Last Friday, we were going home from work, and it took us an hour to get a songthaw, and it was in the rain. It was miserable. We finally got one, but it was wet, and none of us had any rain gear with us (stupid us.) But once we get inside, the rain and thunder are actually quite pleasant. The Next bit will be the narrative of what I have been doing.

Chapter 4: FBR, Temples, and a Palace

So at the FBR office, we are in the process of organizing their archived files. That kinda has been the 9-5 bit of life. FBR sends teams in (mostly consisting of people from Burma, primarily the ethnic minorities of Burma) to give medical aid and support to Internally Displaced peoples in Burma. They then send reports of their activities, the movements of Myanmar’s army, and any other relevant information. It is pretty simple work.

The staff is great to work with. It is a combination of Caucasians and Thais at the office. The guy overseeing us is Nick, he’s cool and is patient with us. We are also learning Thai while at the office. The language though is tough, very tough…

Everyday in the office though, we have a “sandwich” lady that comes around and takes down our orders for lunch, and everyday it is an adventure with something new and cool. I’ve had such things like Pas See Ew (fried egg noodles), Ka Pao (a stir-fried dish with ground meat and egg), Panang Curry, and a garlic chicken.

After work though, we return to the guesthouse and get dinner. At first though, with so much rain, we could only eat really close. But with improved weather, we now have a greater degree of options for food. Though most of the places we’ve been to have no English menu, it has mainly been a point and “I want that” thing.

Last Saturday we had our first excursion up to Doisethep and Puhping palace. Doisethep is a large Buddhist temple on top of the mountain in Chiang Mai. The view from up top was glamorous, but inside the temple, it was an event of true beauty. There is something to be said about South East Asian art and architecture. It has all the order and forms of China, but the passion and heart of India. In short, Chinese and Indian styles fuse to make something extraordinary. The liberal uses of yellow and orange for color gives the temple a certain vibrancy. The palace was also cool. The Puhping palace is a winter residence of the royal family in Thailand. We couldn’t go into the palace directly, but the gardens were still really pretty.

This Saturday though was a lot of fun. We took a whirlwind tour of the jungle with multiple activities. We started out by driving to an Orchid Farm. From there we went into a jungle and rode elephants. The elephant I rode I named Vara, and she was more content with eating than with walking though. We had lunch, and then we hiked to a waterfall. Though the hike was strenuous, being able to swim at the waterfall was refreshing. Next we did white water rafting. This was my favorite activity, and I wished that we could have done it longer, but alas we couldn’t. After some bamboo rafting, we headed back to the guesthouse to celebrate Maddi’s birthday. All in all it was a good day.

Next week, I will post musings that I have been having.

Starting Out

Well, it has been a few days since I got to Thailand. Admittedly I have been more exhausted than anything else because of the time difference and because of wanting to shove a million things into a single day. But here I am, now able to work, typing at 6:41 AM on Friday, since I am awake, have nothing to do, with my body thinking it is 4:42 PM, I would like to spend this time with all of you. Since I have both my undivided attention and yours, let me fill you in on what has been happening.

Prologue

So in 2010, 9 Pepperdine students including myself, applied to a program called JOURNEY being offered through Malibu Presbyterian Church. This was a missions program offered to Pepperdine students, but the catch was that we did not know where we were going to go. In January of 2011, we found out. Kim Gao, Caleb Yee, Madison Hancock, Heather Stancl, and myself were selected to go to Chiang Mai, Thailand an work with the Free Burma Rangers, an NGO that assists the Burmese people and advocates for them worldwide. We spent the next few moths meeting and receiving info and training, preparing to leave for Thailand on May 2.

But that is not all, Caleb and I were seniors at Pepperdine, and seeing as we had completed all our classes, and spending another year at Pepperdine would cost (barring scholarships) approximately $50,000, it was time for us to graduate. So on top of preparing for Thailand, we had to prepare for Graduation. On April 30, we graduated.

After Graduating, I made my final preparations, including picking up a new thing of Malaria pills that will protect me form the disease but has the lovely side effect of nightmares. On May 2, we departed from LAX to Thailand.

Chapter 1: Flight

We left LAX at approximately 3:45 PM. Singapore Air was not that bad. Though it was lacking in leg room, the service was friendly, the food was edible, and the movie selection was superb. We were flying to Singapore via Narita, Japan, and that first flight was 12 hours. I truly dislike flying, I am not afraid, I just don’t like being shoved into tight spaces. But between sleeping, watching movies, and eating, I managed. I watched the following things:

Boston Legal

Family Guy

Not the Messiah: He’s a Very Naughty Boy

I also played a little more Final Fantasy IX on my PSP. After landing in Narita, we had to wait for the flight crew to change. So we spent an hour there. I have truly been to the Narita airport too many times (4 times), since I can figure out were everything is now. The flight from Narita to Singapore was 7 hours, and I tried to sleep, but even with stretching out across the seats (since the plane was now mostly empty and I had a full row) was tough.

Once we got to Singapore, it was 2:30 AM. We had about 6 hours to kill, and the airport was nearly dead, it was empty. So we decided to walk to the terminal, which would take us half an hour. While there, we played around on the travellators (the conveyor belts in the airport) making silly movies with our silly walks. We eventually left Singapore for Chiang Mai, and we finally reached Thailand. As the plane was landing, I was listening to the main theme from The King and I, I feel like I was Orientalizing the whole thing…

Chapter 2: Arrival

My word it is humid here. Not humid in the sense of “oh it is a little warmer,” it is humid in the sense that after you are practically breathing in a wall of moisture in 90+ degrees. We get off the plane and it hits you almost instantaneously. After going through Customs and baggage claim, we are picked up by Jesse, and we head to the Mountain View Guest House, where we will be living for the first few weeks. The place is pretty nice and the staff is friendly, and they have free wifi. The roof also has an amazing view of the city. We unpack and we have to take care of business.

We walk to the mall, which was a miserable experience since it is really hot and we are stopping to take pictures all the time. The mall we go to is this ugly brick structure, it really doesn’t look like a mall, but inside it is your standard mall…sort of…(I will post on the city later) We buy the cell phone, pull money from an atm, and do some shopping. The girls find a deal on shampoo, conditioner, and body wash for I think 149 Baht (the exchange rate is 1:30). It comes out to be comes out to be more, and they fight over what is realistically a few cents. We return from the mall, eat, and then pass out.

The next day we head to the Free Burma Rangers office, which is outside of the city proper. We get there via Songtao, a pickup truck converted into a taxi. We get there and no one is in the office. Some in our group become frustrated over the lack of organization in this whole process. I truly do not mind, I do not know what to expect, and we eventually work things out. The staff arrives and we are able to start an orientation and start working. For now we are office aids for them.

This is a summation of what we have done. In the next post I will describe the city of Chiang Mai, and some of the other fun stuff.

Later